Clarence Birdseye invented, developed, and commercialized a method for quick-freezing food products in convenient packages and without altering the original taste. “Frosted foods” were sold to the public for the first time in 1930 in Springfield, Massachusetts, under the tradename Birds Eye Frosted Foods®. While Clarence Birdseye has become a household name, his process has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry.
Fruits and vegetables chosen for fresh produces isles are usually picked before they ripen, which gives them less time to reach higher amounts of vitamins and minerals. The appearance of ‘ripening’ still occurs, but this produce will never have the same nutritive value as if they had been allowed to fully ripen on the plant.

Clarence Birdseye was born in 1886 in Brooklyn, New York A taxidermist by trade, but a chef at heart, Clarence Birdseye wished his family could have fresh food all year. After observing the people of the Arctic preserving fresh fish and meat in barrels of sea water quickly frozen by the arctic temperatures, he concluded that it was the rapid freezing in the extremely low temperatures that made food retain freshness when thawed and cooked months later.
In 1923, with an investment of $7 for an electric fan, buckets of brine, and cakes of ice, Clarence Birdseye invented and later perfected a system of packing fresh food into waxed cardboard boxes and flash-freezing under high pressure. The Goldman-Sachs Trading Corporation and the Postum Company (later the General Foods Corporation) bought Clarence Birdseye’s patents and trademarks in 1929 for $22 million. The first quick-frozen vegetables, fruits, seafoods, and meat.
Clarence Birdseye turned his attention to other interests and invented an infrared heat lamp, a spotlight for store window displays, a harpoon for marking whales, then established companies to market his products.


Nutritional Five Food Finds about Frozen Food
- Fruits and vegetables tend to be frozen at their peak ripeness, a time when they have the most nutrients.
- Pumpkins and tomatoes lose little nutritional value during the freezing process.
- When shopping for frozen foods, choose those marked with the USDA ‘U.S. Fancy’ shield. Vegetables of this standard tend to be more nutrient-rich than the lower grades ‘U.S. No. 1’ or ‘U.S. No. 2.’
- Steaming or microwaving (instead of boiling) frozen foods minimizes the loss of vitamins & nutrients.
- Frozen produce sales have climbed faster than fresh produce sales over the past five years.

I love these food histories.
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Makes me feel better about frozen food! Thanks
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Reblogged this on Collectables and commented:
So that’s where the brand name came from!
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Thanks for all the informations ! It is still better to have some forzen veggies than nothing at all !!!
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I love the layout of your blog. It reads like short stories that are easily digestible.
I didn’t know much about the history of frozen foods. I eat a frozen meal for lunch every day at work, so your post gave me some good background info on something that’s a big part of my life.
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Great article. I re-blogged this on oneingredientatatime.wordpress.com. Thanks!
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Totally agree with you. Some of the fish we eat frozen is fare fresher than the one we buy as “fresh” – we also so keen on fresh herbs, but there is nothing that gives more flavors to food then the frozen chopped herbs. Many of the fresh herbs we are using just because of using fresh herbs don’t even smell. Have been working a couple of weeks in factory that produces fresh frozen vegetables and they are frozen on the day as picked and what can beat a frozen green pea. So this about the vegetables not being fully ripe when frozen isn’t completely true.
Asparagus are maybe not the easiest vegetable to freeze – but if you grill them from frozen with – we have a producer of frozen asparagus here in Sweden that does it pretty good. FINDUS! I use frozen asparagus at least once a week.
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Reblogged this on Meals on Wheels.
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I feel like frozen foods sometimes get a bad rap because they aren’t “fresh” so thanks for pointing out their benefits: just as healthy and sometimes even more healthy.
I’d also like to say, they are very cost effective: cheaper than fresh and they don’t go bad nearly as quick. I just wish asparagus froze better!
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Reblogged this on finnegan2749.
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